The present invention relates in general to component handling machines and in particular to high-volume machines for loading surface mount chip components into plastic strip tape for use by circuit board manufacturers as part of any automatic or manual component loading operation.
In 1977 the first chip components made their debut and since then remarkable progress has been made in the introduction of chip components into TV tuners, VTR's, cameras and a wide variety of other consumer and industrial products. As the number of different chip components has increased, so has the variety of the equipment and techniques for handling and mounting these chip components onto printed circuit boards.
One concern though is the speed at which the chip components may be installed on the circuit boards. Another concern which impacts on the first concern is the location where the chip components are sorted, arranged and tested. These activities may be conducted at the site where the printed circuit boards are fabricated or may be performed off-site and then brought to the point of fabrication already tested and in a packaging configuration suitable for use by the printed circuit board manufacturer. When the sorting, arranging and testing is done off-site, a means must be provided for safely transporting the chip components to the location of fabrication.
One means for such safe handling and transporting is to load the chip components into a plastic strip or tape wherein the component is actually sandwiched between two layers of plastic and the resultant encased series of components in strip form is rolled onto a spool or reel so that the loaded components can be easily retrieved as part of an automated assembly procedure. The style of tape strip which is typically used includes a lower panel with formed or drawn receiving depressions and a top panel which is sealed to the lower panel. The depressions in the lower strip of plastic are sized and shaped so as to match the size and shape of the particular chip components. Whether the components are shaped as a rectangular solid, cube or cylinder, the depressions are configured so that the components fit comfortably in the depressions, below the upper surface of this lower plastic strip so that the top closing panel may simply be a flat strip of plastic. It is important for the top closing strip to be sealed to the lower strip either by means of a heat-sealing technique or adhesive so that handling is facilitated and so that environmental contaminants will not affect the chip components which are encased within this plastic strip.
A very popular component for thick-film and thin-film hybrid circuit boards are surface-mount chips, such as ceramic capacitors, which are typically rectangular in shape on each face. Since rectangular solid chip components can conceivably orient themselves on one of three different faces (two faces of each size), some type of sorting and handling machine is needed in order to get each chip component properly oriented from a bulk supply into the necessary orientation for placement into the various depressions in the lower plastic strip of the continuous plastic tape.
The present invention provides a suitable sorting and handling machine which is uniquely styled in order to provide extremely high volume handling and loading of the chip components into the plastic tape. The present invention uses the inherent orienting tendencies of the chip components and a helix or spiral track to turn the chip components 90 degrees from their initial orientation in the machine to their final orientation for loading into the tape strip.